Robert Crais, well-known for his books Demolition Angel, Hostage, and LA Requiem, chooses The Two Minute Rule as the name for his new novel from the concept that a bank robber has two minutes to get in and out of a bank before he is in danger of being captured. The Two Minute Rule may not be the best of Crais’ works but the exceptionally keen method that he employs to describe the vignettes on life that Max Holman faces as a freshly-released long-term prisoner are very well done.

The plot revolves around Max’s inexperience and unfamiliarity with current day life, as we know it (such as how to use a mobile phone, and his general knowledge of life in LA), accompanied by all the normal fears of a newly freed man including the fact that he has few job skills and is crippled with the fear that his son, Richard, (an L.A. cop who has been murdered) has turned out bad. Sensing, however, that something is wrong Max approaches the LAPD, where he seeks to discover what his son was doing down at the LA River at 1:30 am on his day off. When he is told to “back off” he becomes even more suspicious and joins forces with Special Agent Pollard (formerly of the FBI) in an effort to find out what is being hidden behind the blue shield. The subplots are also well done including Crais artful weaving of the course of the investigation, which is stymied at every turn by the police, with the personal stories of Max and Katherine who are both lost and terribly wounded souls who discover that not all cops are honest.

In The Two Minute Rule, Crais does a nice job of revealing the facts through the professional proceduralism of Pollard, while at the same time revealing the confusion and conflicts of his main characters. However, while I liked this book because the characters seemed realistic and, while possessing flaws, acted intelligently breaking the law only when having no other choice, errors in the proofreading of this work should be addressed . The pacing of the story is good and I found it refreshing that the two protagonists did not jump into bed despite an obvious attraction for one another.

Tags: book review, the two minute rule, robert crais, realism, mystery, action